Section Two:
Native American Music
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Music Contexts
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Religion
Social dances
Games
Calendar rituals and events in the life
cycle.
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Supernatural Elements
• Some individuals, special relationship with
music
• Form of prayer
• Imparted to the humans by spirit beings
– Dreams
– Visitations
– At the legendary time of the tribe’s origin.
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Music and Dance
• Music and dance are closely related.
• Unite members with spirits of their ancestors.
• Circular pattern, steps, hand gestures, intricate
designs on costumes or face have symbolic
meaning.
• Dancers often sing, use rattles, sound-makers.
• The structures of music and dance often
connected.
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Missouri State University
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Some General Characteristics For
Native American Vocal Music
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Monophonic
Singing in octaves
Vocables
Repetition
Falsetto
Pulsations on long notes
Pentatonic scale
Descending small note collections
Accompanied by percussion instruments
Percussion and vocals not necessarily metrically
united
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Missouri State University
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Musical Examples
• Sioux Grass Dance (I:3)
• Zuni Lullaby (I:4)
• Gadasjot (I:5)
Compare and contrast using the general
characteristics above.
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Missouri State University
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Traditional Instruments
• Idiophones: rattles, stick instruments, log drums,
etc.
• Membranophones: single-headed or doubleheaded drums; kettledrums, sometimes filled
with water.
• Chordophones: almost nonexistent
• Aerophone: flute, made of wood, cane, and
sometimes pottery.
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Missouri State University
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Navajo Traditions
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Navajo Way of Life
• Largest tribe; communities and
reservations in New Mexico, Arizona, and
Utah
• Have economic impact on region
• Sources of livelihood include coal,
uranium, oil, natural gas, lumber; to a
lesser degree farming, raising stock,
weaving, and silversmithing
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General Characteristics
of the Navajo
• Some government support for education,
health care, business
• Costume/dress: men, Western, cowboy
hats; women skirts and blouses; both wear
jewelry
• Houses, modern stucco houses, trailer
homes; some old-style circular log & earth
hogans
• Ceremonial buildings: circular floors,
domed roofs; symbolizes earth,
mountaintops, sky
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Music from three ceremonial events
• A Yeibichai song from the Nightway
ceremony (I:6)
• The song “Shizhané’é from the
Enemyway ceremony (I:7)
• The Navajo Sacred Prayer from the
Shootingway Ceremony (I:9)
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Missouri State University
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Yeibichai Song from the
Nightway Ceremony
• Identify characteristic elements
• Yeibichai (YAY-beh-chai) means
“gods their grandfathers” and refers
to ancestor deities who come to
dance at the Nightway ceremony
• Masked dancers impersonate the
gods
• They bring supernatural power and
blessing to help a sick person
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The Singers and Dances
• Teams of men from a particular region, no
women singers
• The teams compete, and best receives a
gift the family hosting the event
• Will include costumes, masks, a clown
figure
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The Ritual
• Dance occurs on the last night of a
nine-day ritual
• Will include purification activities,
prayer offerings, sand-painting rituals
• Then a reenactment of the myth on
which the ceremony is based. Like a
complex opera
• Directed by the singer who must
memorize every detail; considered an
intellectual and ceremonial leader
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The Circle Dance Song
Shizhané’é
• The Ndaa dance songs are the ‘hit tunes’
of traditional Navajo life
• Includes humorous lyrics about woman
leaning against a store front
• Identify characteristic elements
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The Enemyway Ceremony
• Curing Ritual for returning to tribal life
• Shizhané’é is one of the songs used in the
ceremony
• Sickness is brought on by the ghosts of
outsiders who have died
• Often performed for someone who has
been away from home among strangers
(in the Armed Forces or in the hospital)
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The Shootingway Ceremony
• Part of the creation myth
• Restoration of harmony between people,
and snakes, water and lightning.
• Navajo Sacred Prayer (CD I:9)
(recording fades in and out)
• Much Native American music is so
sacred it is not performed in public.
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Newer Navajo Music
• Christian hymns, some Mormon influence;
evangelical Christianity
– “Clinging to a Saving Hand” (CD 1:11)
• Native American Church (Peyote Church)
– (CD 1:10) Perform in Class!
• Country music
– “Folsom Prison Blues” (CD 1:7)
– Try to conduct this performance in 4/4
• The Native-American Flute Revival (I:14)
– Intonation issues?
• New Composers in Traditional Modes (I:12)
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Assignment 2
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Create a table in which you identify the presence or absence of each of the
following five characteristics (vocables, repetition, falsetto, descending
small note collections, and percussion) in the following music: Sioux Grass
Dance, Yeibichai, Shizhané’é, Hymn of the Native American Church,
Folsom Prison Blues. Please design your table like the following example:
Sioux
Grass
Dance
Yeibichai
Shizhané’é
Hymn of
N.A.
Church
Folsom Prison
Blues
Vocables
Repetition
Falsetto
Descending
Small Note
Collections
Percussion
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Missouri State University
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